How to kill Cursed Skulls in Baldur’s Gate 3

During the long quest chain to help Free the Artist, you will need to track down Oskar in the Lower City of Baldur's Gate in Act 3. In order to get to whatever is possessing him, you'll need to take down some Cursed Skulls, a peculiar enemy with no obvious weaknesses. Below, I'll show you how to kill the frustrating Cursed Skulls in Baldur's Gate 3.

How to destroy Cursed Skulls in BG3

In Baldur's Gate 3, Cursed Skulls are a huge annoyance. They have a Greater Toughness effect that forces a character to hit them for 50 damage to even make a dent. On top of that, they also push back everyone who tries to touch them with a powerful version of Thunderwave. Luckily, there are a few ways to get rid of these floating, haunted bones.

Related: BG3 – How to save the Tieflings & Wulbren in Baldur’s Gate 3

Use the Remove Curse spell on Cursed Skulls

This method isn't my favorite, but it is guaranteed to work. You'll need Remove Curse on one of your casters. I like to make sure that Shadowheart always has Remove Curse with her in Act 3; it's useful both here and in Cazador's palace.

Next, put the game in Turn-Based Mode (TBM). This can be done by pressing Shift and Space on PC or RT on PlayStation to open the options wheel and select turn-based mode. Once TBM is on, then you can start taking out these pushy skulls. Here's a step-by-step guide to getting rid of them for good.

• Go into Turn-Based Mode.
• Get two characters close to the skull, but not within blast distance. Make sure one of them has Remove Curse.
• Take the character that doesn't have Remove Curse, and move as close to the skull as you can. The skull will push them back.
• Now that the skull has used up its Thunderwave, walk in with Shadowheart—or whichever caster has Remove Curse—and use the spell on the skull.
• Heal up your characters and move onto the next Cursed Skull.

Though this is a tedious process, I can assure you that it's an effective method for getting rid of the Cursed Skulls.

Use fire and force damage on the Cursed Skulls

Related: Trap Disarming Guide (Baldur’s Gate 3)

Cursed Skulls are weak to fire spells, so if you don't want the hassle of trying to remove their Curse, get a strong fire spell and start blasting. A spellcaster at level 11 or 12 will be able to smash a skull with a single Fire Bolt. This is probably the most fun option, but if you are lower than level 11, it can be challenging to get a good enough hit in to overcome Greater Toughness.

The hard way to get rid of Cursed Skulls

Cursed Skulls have a lot of vulnerabilities, but you can get rid of them without exploiting any. The hardest way to get rid of the Cursed Skulls is to try and fight them hand-to-hand. This is possible if you have a Barbarian with a lot of strength that can deal massive amounts of slashing damage. However, you'll have to beat the Greater Toughness effect and deal with Thunderwave once it goes off.

There are a lot of Cursed Skulls in the estate, and you'll need to kill all of them to get into the attic. This means using a lot of level 6 spells, or a lot of potential damage to your characters as they try to get into melee range. This fight can be massively frustrating to try to pull off, so I would avoid it at all costs.

Bugged Cursed Skulls in BG3

Still having trouble? If the skulls are constantly casting Thunderwave on you even in Turn-Based Mode, that is a bug. There isn't currently a fix for this known, but it seems like it might be exclusive to the PS5 version of BG3. If you are experiencing this bug, try closing and restarting the game. If this doesn't work, try loading up the last save and starting again.

For more Baldur's Gate 3, check out How to get the Gemini Gloves in BG3 on Pro Game Guides.